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    Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van Winkle
    Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van Winkle
    Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van Winkle
    Ebook203 pages1 hour

    Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van Winkle

    By Charles Burke

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van Winkle

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      Book preview

      Representative Plays by American Dramatists - Charles Burke

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van Winkle by Charles Burke

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license

      Title: Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van

      Winkle

      Author: Charles Burke

      Release Date: December 18, 2007 [Ebook #27552]

      Language: English

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REPRESENTATIVE PLAYS BY AMERICAN DRAMATISTS: 1856-1911: RIP VAN WINKLE***

      Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911:

      Rip van Winkle

      by Charles Burke

      First Project Gutenberg Edition , (December 18, 2007)

      [pg 23]

      Charles Burke

      Contents

      Preface

      Announcement

      RIP VAN WINKLE

      Introduction

      CAST OF CHARACTERS

      COSTUME

      RIP VAN WINKLE

      ACT I.

      SCENE I.

      SCENE II.

      SCENE III.

      SCENE IV.

      SCENE V.

      ACT II.

      SCENE I.

      SCENE II.

      SCENE III.

      SCENE IV.

      SCENE LAST.

      Transcribers' Notes

      [pg 024]

      This is the history of the evolution of a play. Many hands were concerned in its growth, but its increase in scenic effect as well as in dialogue was a stage one, rather than prompted by literary fervour. No dramatization of Washington Irving's immortal story has approached the original in art of expression or in vividness of scene. But, if historical record can be believed, it is the actor, rather than the dramatist, who has vied with Irving in the vitality of characterization and in the romantic ideality of figure and speech. Some of our best comedians found attraction in the r�le, yet, though Charles Burke and James A. Herne are recalled, by those who remember back so far, for the very Dutch lifelikeness of the genial old drunkard, Joseph Jefferson overtops all memories by his classic portrayal.

      As far as literary value of the versions is concerned, it would be small loss if none of them were available. They form a mechanical frame-work as devoid of beauty as the skeleton scarecrow in Percy Mackaye's play, which was based on Hawthorne's Feathertop in Mosses from an Old Manse. It was only when the dry bones were clothed and breathed into by the actor's personality that the dramatizations lived. One can recall no plot that moves naturally in these versions; the transformation of the story into dialogue was mechanical, done by men to whom hack-work was the easiest thing in the world. Comparing the Kerr play with the Burke revision of it, when the text is strained for richness of phrase it might contain, only one line results, and is worth remembering; it is Burke's original contribution,—Are we so soon forgot when we are gone?

      The frequency with which Rip Van Winkle was dramatized would indicate that, very early in the nineteenth century, managers of the theatre were assiduous hunters after material which might be considered native. Certainly Rip takes his place with Deuteronomy Dutiful, Bardwell Slote, Solon Shingle and Davy Crockett as of the soil.

      Irving's Sketch Book was published in 1819, and, considering his vast interest in the stage, and the dramatic work done by [pg 025] him in conjunction with John Howard Payne, it is unfortunate that he himself did not realize the dramatic possibilities of his story. There is no available record to show that he either approved or disapproved of the early dramatizations. But there is ample record to show that, with the beginning of its stage career, nine years after publication, Rip caught fire on the stage both in America and in London. Mr. James K. Hackett is authority for the statement that among his father's papers is a letter from Irving congratulating him upon having made so much from such scant material.

      The legendary character of Irving's sources, as traced in German folk-lore, does not come within the scope of this introduction. The first record of a play is Thomas Flynn's appearance as Rip in a dramatization made by an unnamed Albanian, at the South Pearl Street Theatre, Albany, N. Y., May 26, 1828. It was given for the benefit of the actor's wife, and was called Rip Van Winkle; or, The Spirits of the Catskill Mountains. Notice of it may be found in the files of the Albany Argus. Winter, in his Life of Joseph Jefferson, reproduces the prologue. Part of the cast was as follows:

      Derrick Van Slous—Charles B. Parsons

      Knickerbocker—Moses S. Phillips

      Rip Van Winkle—Thomas Flynn

      Lowenna—Mrs. Flynn

      Alice—Mrs. Forbes

      Flynn was a great friend of the elder Booth, and Edwin bore Thomas as a middle name.

      In 1829, Charles B. Parsons was playing Rip in Cincinnati, Ohio, but no authorship is mentioned in connection with it, so it must be inferred that it was probably one of those stock products so characteristic of the early American theatre. Ludlow, in his Dramatic Life, records Rip in Louisville, Kentucky, November 21, 1831, and says that the Cincinnati performance occurred three years before, making it, therefore, in the dramatic season of 1828–29, this being Rip's first representation West of the Alleghany Mountains, and, I believe, the first time on any stage. Ludlow proceeds to state that, while in New York, in the summer of 1828, an old stage friend of his offered to sell him a manuscript version of Rip, which, on his recommendation, he proceeded to purchase without reading [pg 026] it. And then the manager indicates how a character part is built to catch the interest of the audience, by the following bit of anecdote:

      It passed off there [in Cincinnati] without appearing to create any interest more than a drama on any ordinary subject, with the exception of one speech, which was not the author's, but introduced without my previous knowledge by one of the actors in the piece. This actor was a young gentleman of education, who was performing on the stage under the name of Barry; but that was not his real name, and he was acting the part of Nicholas Vedder in this drama. In the scene where Rip returns to his native village after the twenty years of sleep that he had passed through, and finds the objects changed from what he remembered them,—among other things the sign over the door of the tavern where he used to take his drinks,—he enquires of Vedder, whom he had recognized, and to whom he had made himself known, who that sign was intended to represent, saying at the same time that the head of King George III used to hang there. In reply to him, instead of speaking the words of the author, Mr. Barry said, "Don't you know who that is? That's

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